With the first month of the new year now in the bag, it is highly probable that those ‘New Year’ resolutions set at the back end of 2023 have already been broken – at least those set on a personal level where exercise or the quitting of bad habits are usually top of those lists.

In this regard, it is estimated that as many as 80% of people fail to keep their resolutions by February, with only a mere 8% seeing them through for the entirety of the year.

A 4000-year Old Tradition

The act of setting goals at the start of a new calendar year is reported to date back to Ancient Babylonians some 4000 years ago where ‘debts were promised to be paid to gods and borrowed objects returned’. And, whilst the new year promises were deeply entwined with religion and mythology, the premise of a ‘new beginning’ is one that has carried through for many thousands of years.

While resolutions are often associated with personal goals, they hold equal importance when it comes to business – especially around setting annual objectives and reflecting on the overall strategy in an ever-changing environment where continual review of the road ahead is crucial.

Most businesses will review their new year plans in quarter four when typically, there is enough information to reflect back on metrics and KPIs for the current year, assess whether or not objectives will be hit, and allow some wiggle room to re-calibrate and focus on ending the year on a high.

Objectives or ‘new year resolutions’ therefore have likely long been set at this juncture – and for those businesses set on a growth trajectory, these will likely include executing hiring plans as well as a laser-sharp focus on staff retention.

Are Your Business Resolutions Still on Track?

At the stroke of midnight on 1^st January, and the subsequent return to the office after the festive break, business across most sectors will no doubt have set their sights kickstarting the 2024 objectives with intent. However, as the first quarter unfolds, it appears that some may be encountering obstacles in adhering to their hiring-focused resolutions.

Even one calendar month down the line, and then as the year progresses, it’s essential for businesses to reassess their hiring objectives, adapt to unforeseen challenges, and remain committed to the path of growth – especially when you consider a recent statistic that 75% of UK businesses are in a state of ‘existence’ or just surviving.

So what areas should companies be focussed on to ensure their well-intentioned goals remain on track?

Streamline (and Standardise) Your Hiring Process:

The aspiration to streamline hiring processes and avoid past mistakes holds promise, but the intricate decision-making within some companies can pose challenges. If you recruit regularly, it is worth looking to standardise processes where possible, albeit not at the detriment to the often-unique experiences of each individual candidate that comes into contact with the business. An ethical approach to recruitment is recommended here – and is becoming a non-negotiable in the current candidate-led market.

Enhance Diversity Efforts:

Despite the emphasis on diversity and inclusion, some businesses may struggle to make significant progress due to ingrained practices and a lack of comprehensive strategies. Overcoming unconscious biases and fostering an inclusive environment requires continuous effort, which may not be progressing as rapidly as intended. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) are not just buzzwords or an acronym to add to your customer-facing marketing; they are essential components of a successful business strategy of any business that aims to remain competitive. As the glue that keeps social dynamics within a business and in turn, team competence and efficacy functioning at its highest capacity, it is indispensable to your hiring strategy, whatever your recruitment goals or objectives may be, and when done right, it can be instrumental in keeping your talent attraction and retention efforts on track.

It is perhaps concerning then, that businesses are yet to treat it as more than an emerging trend in practice, and some go only as far as paying lip service when professing to make it a central part of their recruitment efforts. If you’re serious about taking your hiring game to the next level in 2024, then this is a great place to start.

Revisit Your Job Descriptions:

Job descriptions may be overlooked as daily tasks take precedence. Busy schedules can result in insufficient attention to crafting comprehensive and appealing job descriptions, making it difficult to attract top-tier talent.

However, as the hiring landscape evolves, active candidates still rely on engaging, informative, and powerful job descriptions to assess whether or not they are a fit for their career aspirations and professional development. The best job descriptions go beyond skill requirements, offering a glimpse into company culture and showcasing benefits that matter to the market’s top talent.

As companies forge ahead with hiring initiatives, the importance of making your voice shine amidst the noise becomes increasingly important. If you want to turn the heads of the right people from the get-go and avoid a ‘square peg in a round hole’ scenario with regard to your hiring efforts, then your job descriptions must be compelling, engaging and effective enough to attract the market’s top talent. Find out more about how to craft a winning job description here.

Harness the Potential of Social Media:

Depending on your sector or industry, some may find it challenging to fully embrace the power of social media. The time and resources required for maintaining an active and engaging social media presence can be overwhelming for companies, leading to a lapse in this resolution, however, love it or loathe it – the fact remains that jobseekers will research the whole digital footprint of a business as part of their decision-making process.

If you have the core channels set up and active, it’s always worth a holistic review of things like your bio information, and your wider content strategy. What kind of things do you communicate? Do you share information that gives visitors to those platforms a good idea of your working environment and culture? Is it obvious how you celebrate success? Can you utilise the voice of your existing employees to focus on things like career development?  A social media strategy is usually easy to flex and improve as and when you need to, so if that review wasn’t part of your new-year resolution, it’s always worth finding the time to conduct your due-diligence and ensure that your channels are working as hard as they can to put your best foot forward to those in the active talent pools.

Invest in Training and Upskilling:

Despite recognising the importance of investing in staff development, businesses may face budget constraints or a lack of suitable training programs. This can hinder the execution of the resolution to upskill existing staff – something that will no doubt be on the agendas of businesses up and down the country as the much-documented skills shortage becomes a harsh reality.

Similarly, what jobseekers look for in an employer has changed significantly since the pandemic and the value of career fulfillment has become a staple part of the modern employee’s priorities when searching for the ideal employer.

The notion of the one-employer-career has changed dramatically in recent years, and it’s not at all uncommon for individuals to be left with a lingering sense of stagnation after spending a few years building their skills in their current role, and consequently view the option of jumping ship as the only way to experience real progress in their career.

The resulting high turnover rate is what has brought the idea of Employee Development Plans into focus for businesses, with an aim to ensure ongoing employability through improving the individual’s workplace soft and hard skills, and industry knowledge. A good plan will strive to create a series of actions designed to help the individual develop and grow within the context of their professional career, while also developing their capabilities and meeting the needs of the employer.

Build and Maintain Brand Image:

Building and maintaining a strong brand image demands consistent effort and resources. Companies may find it challenging to allocate sufficient time and funds to enhance their brand, especially when immediate client needs take precedence.

Candidates believe in what they can see now more than ever, and in an age where information is easily accessible online, maintaining a strong brand and a good reputation is essential for attracting and retaining top talent. Prospective candidates will research a business as much as the hiring manager of that business will investigate the candidates’ qualifications and qualities – and should your credibility fall short as an employer you can be filtered out of shortlists before a CV or profile is even read.

A proactive approach is therefore essential in order to positively influence one’s brand and reputation in the market, whether that be by building a workforce that acts as ambassadors that champion the business values, or convincingly demonstrating that your business does indeed walk the walk when it comes to employee satisfaction. Click here to find out more about how you can tap into the potential your employer brand carries and catalyse its growth.

Consider How Flexible You Can Afford to Be:

One might say that the hybrid working drum has been beaten to death ever since its meteoric rise in popularity among candidates during the pandemic. It’s hardly a secret to anyone keeping a close eye on the state of play across the industry over the last few years, and most if not all businesses competing for the best talent available on the market will be well aware of just how highly sought after flexibility is by the talent pool in their current market.

And yet, this topic of flexibility remains a sticking point with some employers today, and as a result a barrier to rather than a buttress for hiring success. While that is in part due to expected challenges in marrying candidate and business demands, it is also due to the general rigidity some employers now have towards changes to traditional modus operandi in general. When competition for talent is fiercer than ever before, can your business afford to be flexible when it comes to working arrangements?

Ultimately, the crux of your success in your hiring efforts will come down to how well you can provide the best employee experience better than your competitors (and back it up). If it is indeed a viable option for your business then it should absolutely be part of your recruitment – and retention – strategy.  We take a deeper look at this and much more here.

In Conclusion:

With almost 11 months left of the year, arguably it is still all to play for when it comes to adherence to your annual business objectives. If however, the roadmap to growth has already hit some bumps in the road, especially when it comes to talent attraction, utilising the services of recruitment specialists will undoubtedly get those plans back on track with renewed insight about current market conditions and the movement of talent within your region and/or practice area.

About Clayton Recruitment

At Clayton Recruitment, we have been committed for the past 20 plus years to helping professionals build a career they can be proud of, whatever stage of their journey they might be at. If you are at a point where that next step in your career is unclear at this stage of the new year, then we can give you the guidance you need to make your start in 2024 the strongest possible one. Give our team a call today on 01772 259 121 or contact us here.

Before we look at ways to build a diverse workplace for your team, it’s worth thinking about what exactly we mean by a ‘diverse workplace’. There are so many buzz words around at the moment that it’s hard to know what they all mean – and if they communicate the same thing to everyone.

The ‘company culture’ that diversity and inclusion bring have gained momentum as de rigour in the world of work for candidates looking for employment. A recent workplace study found that 56% of employees valued a good company culture fit over salary.

Workplace diversity means employing people with a wide range of diverse characteristics. These could include age, gender, race, religion, cultural background, language, sexual orientation, education, ability, etc…the list goes on.

But it’s not just a fad – there are tangible benefits from offering a diverse workplace in the form of achieving higher productivity and profits for those who embrace workplace diversity in their business. And workplace diversity was one of the key trends last year – with no signs of stopping as we head towards 2020.

So, how will building a diverse workplace for your team encourage them to flourish? Here are 9 ways diversity can help your business achieve success:

1. Increases Creativity

Diversity is one of the critical ingredients for creativity. Diverse solutions come from having multiple options that are provided when you have a group of individuals with different thought patterns, world views and ideas.

In your team, having employees who are all very similar in terms of mindset and life experience inevitably leads to a smaller viewpoint overall.

Conversely, harnessing the personal creativity-diversity techniques of a group of people who recognise that everything can be viewed in multiple ways can lead to the generation of more creative ideas. If your Fee Earners and Solicitors come from diverse backgrounds and experiences, they will inevitably have a wider pot of knowledge from which to draw fresh ideas and solutions.

2. Allows Different Perspectives

Different perspectives are beneficial when it comes to strategic planning.

The ability to see things from alternative points of view will allow your business to better judge which direction it should take in goal planning. Having varied options, and a clear idea of results from those options will enable your business to decide which is the best route to take to achieve the required overall result.

3. Makes Problem-Solving Easier

Again, the scope provided by a diverse team makes it quicker to problem-solve. Because different individuals think in different ways, it’s possible to quickly come up with various potential solutions to a problem, from which a final decision can be made.

This Harvard Business Review report confirms that diverse teams solve problems faster than cognitively similar groups.

4. Encourages Innovation

A melting pot of novel world views can open doors to innovation. It can be inspiring to be part of a group that sees things in a different way and can come up with creative innovation that otherwise may not have been considered. The ability to think outside the box and from a different angle can enable diversity of ideas to come to light.

Additionally, in an environment where diversity and inclusion are nurtured, it’s likely that individuals are more inclined to voice their ideas without fear of reprisal or ridicule. For example, junior members are more enabled to come forward with ideas if they believe they will be listened to and encouraged to contribute.

In a forward-thinking workplace, you are more likely to achieve innovation through group participation – you never know what ideas your team may hit upon!

5. Engages Employees

The link between diversity and engagement is an obvious one. Where employees experience inclusivity they automatically feel engaged and loyal to their business.

Businesses that has engaged employees will benefit from a strong team with shared values. Along with diverse and inclusive traits comes a nimble and agile team who can turn things around quickly, achieving more in less time and with access to multiple possible solutions – driving your business forwards.

6. Improves Company Reputation

Your Employer Brand is how you are perceived by the outside world. To ensure your business is seen in a positive light as knowledgeable, reliable and at the top of your game, it’s essential to ensure that your employer brand is truly reflecting your worth and achievements.

Having happy and motivated employees helps your business retain its status and reputation. In addition to the better service they will inevitably provide your clients, their online chat and information – formal and informal – alongside word of mouth and personal recommendation to friends and family, will help position you as the go-to business.

7. Achieves Better Retention

A business who offer a diverse and inclusive workplace is going to make their employees feel valued and appreciated as individuals. Happiness in work leads to better retention levels, with staff showing loyalty to a fair employer and staying with them to build their career. Employee turnover can be costly, so investing in your diverse team is pivotal in achieving better retention rates.

8. Attracts New Talent

Ultimately, a business with a great reputation for diversity and inclusion, who has engaged employees, good profit margins, innovative ideas, a superb reputation and high retention levels is bound to attract new talent to want to work there.

And if that isn’t enough to convince you…

9. Increases Profits

McKinsey & Co found that where companies had more diverse teams, they also performed better financially.

Diverse teams are better able to win new talent to the business. This, in turn, helps to improve client service, employee satisfaction and make decision-making faster.

All this gives a forward-thinking, diverse business an advantage over competitors and enables them to achieve more profit as a result: a cycle of increasing returns.

Conclusion

Bringing a mix of skills and experiences to the workplace is good for business, providing an admirable company culture for your business. It’s worth noting that this starts at the top, too. Diversity at senior level is more likely to introduce new product innovations than are those with homogeneous “top teams.”

In the millennial age, offering diversity and a great company culture means harbouring an environment where all employees are respected and valued, where there is a vision shared and worked towards by everyone, and where communication, transparency and teamwork are paramount.

While I’m not suggesting that achieving excellent diversity across your business will be easy, it’s something to consider working towards. The benefits are multiple, and your employees will thank you for it – as will your Senior Partners when they see the benefits reflected in the business’s reputation and profit margins.

About Clayton Recruitment

Clayton Recruitment has been partnering with organisations across thecountry since 1989, and during that time has built up an excellent reputation for trust and reliability. With specialist divisions covering Commercial, Financial, and Engineering appointments, on a permanent basis.

If you are looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121.

If you would like to access our free guides, view them all here.

Is your company paying attention to its employees, as well as your customers?

Your employer brand might be the silent reason between attracting the accountancy candidates you want and being left wondering ‘where are all the great candidates?’

Currently, three in four employers state that they find it hard to fill vacancies. It is a candidate-driven market, and the best candidates invariably flock to the ‘best’ companies.

Your employer brand is a tool which you can use to attract the kind of people who will enrich your company and who will be good for business – so what exactly is an employer brand? And how can you use it to your advantage? This article will show you how.

What Does Your Employer Brand Say About You?

Before you can decide how your employer brand needs to be tweaked (or overhauled), you first need to understand what kind of employer brand you currently have.

When you think of a company – take Google, for example – what is the kind of ethos that you associate with this brand? They’re forward-thinking, have a famous reputation for their incredible workspaces and are at the cutting edge of most software technologies.

What do you think would be the first things that pop into potential candidates’ minds when they think about your company? Do you have a strong market presence? Are you active on social media? What kind of people works for you?

You can create an audit using a variety of sources – ask your current employees to take part in surveys, hold stakeholder interviews with key figures, and send questionnaires to people who have rejected your job offers.

When you have compiled an analysis of your current employer brand, you can start to see where you might like to improve.

Size Up The Competition

In your quest to win the best candidates, your main barrier is your direct competitors.

When you are based in a big city, there can be several firms all competing for the best talent, but over a smaller area, the numbers can get uncomfortably close. You might even personally know the accountants working for other firms – you might have lost out to them previously.

If you have one, or a few, direct competitors (be that geographically or in your sector specialism) how does your firm measure up?

I’m not suggesting you copy mission statements or logos from your competitors, but you can take inspiration from organisations you admire. Has a rival firm recently upped their marketing with physical and online adverts? What are their job descriptions like? These are places where you can take inspiration from.

Create a Plan

Once you have identified the issues with your current employer brand, how would you like these to improve?

If you are attracting X kind of candidates, but you want Y candidates, how can you get these candidates to interact with your business more?

It is here that you can develop your ‘Employer Value Proposition’. Your EVP describes the salary, compensation and benefits that you provide to your employees.

In today’s job market, EVP’s are becoming increasingly competitive. Driven by a younger workforce (millennials are set to make up a third of the global workforce by 2020), employers are increasingly offering health insurance, dental plans, childcare, and health and wellbeing programmes.

Recent research from the United States shows that 80% of employees think that workplace benefits are more important than salary, and it’s a similar picture in the UK too. Get your benefits package right, and the great candidates will follow.

Review your candidate avatar and direct your online presence toward the kind of candidate you want – starting with your online content.

Upgrade Your Online Presence

Updating your online profile is a great way to cultivate your employer brand. Gone are the days of dry finance websites full of blocks of monochrome text.

While accountancy might have once had a reputation for being a sector which operates strictly behind the scenes, this is now changing.

A desire for transparency in all areas of the workplace has meant that companies are now more forthcoming with information which was previously only ‘behind the scenes’. An example of this is CEOs of companies getting involved in online videos that can be shared as advertising – think of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. Twenty years ago we never knew the directors of large multinational companies: now they are never out of the news.

Some of the biggest news stories in the last few years have included accountancy – there is rarely a week where the global financial powers are not in the news.

Adapting your online presence is an easy way of remodelling your employer brand. Most job seekers will now check your website as their first port of call before applying to your firm, and they have certain expectations. They will be looking for active social media accounts, a modern and informative website containing blogs and other forms of content.

Encourage Advocates

Thanks to our hyper-connected world, review culture have made it possible to ‘try before you buy’ for almost anything and everything.

Your current employees should be involved in your employer branding strategy, and this is an opportunity to build the kind of team you want.

LinkedIn is a great way to involve your current employees to act as advocates for your firm.

Use your company’s LinkedIn company page to share articles, give company updates and engage with your staff and other companies whose values align with your own.

A company with a robust online presence with actively engaged employees is a crucial way to impress prospective candidates. Job seekers are far more likely to apply to a company that has provided them with some credible information and can demonstrate a good employee experience.

Remember – you can’t make your employees engage with you on social media, but they are far more likely to if you are providing them with a great employee experience!

About Clayton Recruitment

Clayton Recruitment has been partnering with organisations across the country since 1989 and during that time has built up an excellent reputation for trust and reliability.

With specialist divisions covering Commercial, Financial, Industrial, and Engineering appointments, on both a permanent and temporary basis. If you are looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.

If you would like to download our latest interview checklist, you can do so here.

In today’s hyper-connected world, every company has a reputation, whether they actively cultivate it or not.

In a similar way that a commercial brand can affect the way a consumer feels about you, so too can your employer brand impact a candidate’s decision on whether to work with your company. That’s why leaders across every sector are now investing more time and money into effective employer branding exercises.

For example, your employer brand image can play a key role in getting the right kind of candidates for your organisation. The best candidates will naturally gravitate towards organisations that put their best face forward both online, and offline.

So, how can you create an employer brand that attracts the talent that’s right for your company?

1. Evaluate Your Current Reputation

Before you can begin making changes to your employer brand, you need to know where you stand. A survey or poll of key employees can help you build a foundation for your future employer brand.

Finding out what your current staff think about your organisation will help you identify the gap between where you are and where you want your employer brand to be.

2. Personalise Employee Experiences

You’ll also want to establish your Employer Value Proposition, by determining what you (can) offer your team that no-one else in your industry does.

In order to stay competitive, finance companies need to offer their employees an employment experience unlike any other. The key to attracting the best talent is being able to demonstrate that you have a healthy company culture and that you understand and accommodate modern needs.

For instance, as well as offering exceptional support and development opportunities to your employees, you can also promote work/life balance through remote-working or flexible scheduling and offer employee wellness programmes that include family days and partner events.

Find what makes you unique to the specific types of talent you want to attract, then keep those features in mind when you start working with a specialist recruitment agency.

3. Celebrate (And Market) Your Company Culture

Make sure that you’re continually demonstrating your value to top-tier talent.

Today’s professionals begin the search for the ideal position online. If you’re looking for a great accountant for your team, then you need to make sure you’re posting ads on all of your social media channels as well as the specialist job listing sites where prospective finance professionals are looking.

In addition to your presence on social media, your website also needs to be packed full of useful information about what your business does for both employees, and the industry overall. At the same time, your recruitment agency can help you to develop job specifications that highlight the most attractive parts of working for your company.

Though a great listing is a great way to inspire top-performing talent, showcasing your company culture doesn’t have to stop there. Demonstrate what applicants can expect when they come to you by publishing blog posts, recording videos to share on social media, and generating case studies about your recent projects.

The more information you make available to your candidates, the more confident they’ll feel applying for your position.

4. Develop an Advocacy Programme

If you’re hoping to use your online presence to share information about your employer brand with possible future recruits, then the best things you can do to showcase your value is through your existing employees.

Advocates among your staff can share stories about their experiences with your company in videos, case studies, review websites like Glassdoor, and across your organisation’s social media platforms. This primarily involves asking your existing staff to share their thoughts, opinions, and experiences related to working for you with their social networks.

Advocacy is a powerful way of building your brand because the words of your team are far more believable than the messages your business creates to attract new talent. Therefore, make it as easy as possible for people to join your advocacy programme and offer rewards for the professionals who get involved.

5. Make the Hiring Experience Count

In our highly-connected social world, it’s important to make sure that the conversations you inspire are as positive as possible. This means that every aspect of your recruitment process, from your job specs to your hiring interviews and onboarding process, must support your image.

While a specialist recruiter like Clayton Recruitment can make it easier for you to track down the perfect candidates for your team, it’s up to you to convince the talent you speak to that they should want to work for you. Personalise the questions you ask potential hires according to the roles they’ve applied for, and make sure that they know how you’ll be keeping in touch with them when the interview is over.

Once you’ve brought someone new into your company, make sure that you nurture the relationship you’ve begun to build by offering plenty of clear communication and recognition. Providing a stress-free onboarding process with regular feedback will improve morale within your company while motivating your employees to continuously give their best work.

6. Ask for Feedback and Adapt

If you want to know how you can convince a new fees administrator or purchasing coordinator to join your team, why not simply ask for guidance from an existing professional on your staff? If you can figure out what compels your most valuable hires to stick with your brand, then you can draw more attention to those features the next time you advertise a role, or conduct an interview.

Avoid the mistake of not listening to your team; asking for feedback doesn’t necessarily mean listening to all the good things your employees have to say about your business and ignoring the rest. Consider sending out surveys to find out more about what’s working well for your company, and what you might need to change.

While it’s a good idea to stick to your core values and vision, it’s always important to be flexible if it means attracting the best skills for your team. Maybe you need to give your finance professionals more options for remote working, or invest in new tools for your engineers? A simple change can make a big difference.

7. Monitor Your Reputation

The most important thing you can understand about your employer brand is that it will continue to change and grow with time – regardless of whether you’re refining it or not.

Employer brands are organic things. They require frequent attention to ensure that they don’t veer off in the wrong direction. The best companies know how to manage the perceptions they build around their business as it grows, carefully monitoring their reputation on everything from social media to satisfaction surveys.

There are always going to be people out there talking about your company, and being aware of the conversation ensures that you can start to steer it in the right direction. Failing to monitor your efforts may mean that you miss out on some of the best talent on the market the next time you need to fill a gap in your team.

Maintaining a great employer brand takes a lot of effort and focus, but it can be the key to building a high-performing team.

About Clayton Recruitment

Clayton Recruitment has been partnering with organisations across the country since 1989 and during that time has built up an enviable reputation for trust and reliability.

With specialist divisions covering Commercial, Financial, Industrial, and Engineering appointments, on both a permanent and temporary basis. If you are looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.

If you would like to download our latest interview checklist, you can do so here.

Commercial talent; often it feels as though there isn’t any! And it’s not just a feeling either; in January, the British Chamber of Commerce published findings that skills shortages in both service and manufacturing industries were reaching ‘critical levels’. The headlines make for sobering reading, although it’s not all doom and gloom. Businesses can take specific steps to give themselves a much better chance of attracting, and retaining, the very best talent: a strong employer brand and a reliable recruitment partner could make the difference your company needs.

Building a brand: need to know

If asked to name a famous brand, there’s probably half a dozen or more that you could name off the top of your head. We’ve all heard of consumer brands like Coca-Cola, but what about employer brands?

An employer brand should be to your potential employees what your market branding is to the people that buy your products and services. It should be appealing and should essentially portray your business as a desirable place to work – as it is, no doubt. An employer brand might showcase the following aspects of your company:

• Success stories – what kind of achievements have your staff made since working in your company?
• Culture – is it work hard, play hard, or do you encourage staff to pursue a healthy work/life balance?
• Quality of work – is the work varied, challenging and interesting?
• Training and development – what opportunities are there to enhance skills, and how might a candidate grow their career with you?
• Benefits – apart from salary and financial reward, what are the benefits of working for your business over and above another?

Reassurance

Post-recession and post-Brexit, those on the lookout for a new job want to know that the company they decide to work for is a solid investment of their professional time and skills. Businesses need to reassure potential candidates that their prospects are good and that the company offers a good fit in terms of values.

A strong employer brand shouldn’t just work to attract new talent, it should help to retain existing talent. In fact, one of the most effective ways to devise a strategy for creating an employer brand is to communicate with your existing staff. Find out what motivates them, what they would like to see more or less of, and how their experience could be improved upon and you’ll have a good idea of what potential employees are looking for.

Getting the right support for your employer brand

Having an employer brand is valuable and should pay dividends in the long term. A great employer brand, however, takes time to create, establish and maintain. And all the while the war for talent rages on. The very best talent work hard and it’s hard work to attract them to your company too!

A recruitment partner that works in the background while you concentrate on your own brand-building activity can be incredibly beneficial. An established recruitment agency will already have their own brand and a good reputation, which reflects well on your business and provides reassurance to the candidate. What’s more, a recruitment agency, especially one with a broad spectrum of commercial experience, will have their ear to the ground and be able to keep you informed of candidate feedback and motivations to be aware of when establishing and maintaining an employer brand.

Not just a helping hand

Clayton Recruitment’s regional analysis of recruitment trends in the North West found that vacancies are on the increase across all industries from commercial finance to logistics: it doesn’t appear that the skills shortage will be coming to an end any time soon. The benefit of working with a recruitment partner is that while you’re busy building up your employer brand, the agent can access their existing pool of talent to find you the best candidate.

An agency that understands and has plenty of experience in commercial recruitment is key too. They can use their extensive and wide-ranging sector knowledge to filter out the very best talent that matches up with your needs. And while the skills shortage isn’t likely to disappear overnight, it can take a weight off your shoulders knowing that a professional is handling your company’s recruitment.

If you’re thinking of creating an employer brand or think that your existing brand needs re-developing, then why not get in touch with Clayton Recruitment? We’d be happy to chat about employer branding or help with finding the best talent for your business.

If you’d like to find out more about building an Employer Brand, please download our guide here.

If you’d like to find out more about the benefits of using a specialised recruitment company, have a look at our blog on how to get the best out of your recruitment company.